By Laura Sharman, CNN
(CNN) — Twenty years of memories spilled across Jacinda Thorn’s yard.
Teddy bears and textbooks, camping gear stacked against her husband’s drum kit, a jumble of whisks and frying pans catching the morning sun.
With just five suitcases and their Shih Tzu Bubbles in tow, the family – Thorn, 43, husband Blair, 44, and their children Eva and Chase – swapped their home in New Zealand’s capital for a place in Melbourne – a third larger at the same price.
“I never thought I’d live outside of Wellington, let alone New Zealand,” she told CNN from Australia, two years on. “I still love it, but our family is now thriving and life has a whole new sense of adventure and ease.”
New Zealand, a picturesque nation in the South Pacific, consistently ranks among the countries people most want to move to, and has become an attractive bolthole for wealthy Americans seeking a safe haven in an unstable world.
But it’s shedding its own people at near-record levels.
Over the past four years, the number of New Zealanders aged 30-50 emigrating has more than doubled – from 18,000 to 43,000 – fueled by rising living costs and a weakening job market, demographers told CNN.
Thorn’s more famous namesake, former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, recently became the unlikely face of this exodus. The 45-year-old’s office confirmed last week that she and her family have relocated to Sydney, after they were spotted house-hunting in the city’s affluent northern beaches.
Kiwis moving abroad is not uncommon, and more Kiwis generally are choosing to leave than before; in the year ending November 2025, almost 122,000 people emigrated, a 4% jump from the previous year and higher than a previous spike in 2012.
But traditionally it’s been those in their 20s packing up their lives and moving to London or Australia to work and travel for a few years. There is even a nickname for it locally – doing your “Big OE,” or Overseas Experience.
While these young adults remain the largest group heading abroad, mid-lifers, like Ardern, are now the fastest-growing segment, with retirees increasingly joining them, according to government data.
“It’s quite an unusual trend,” said economist Brad Olsen, chief executive and principal economist at Infometrics Ltd. “It’s only when you have those much tougher economic times that you generally see a net outflow of groups over 40.”
This 30s-to-50s age group stands out because its members are often moving their “center of gravity,” leaving behind established careers, networks and family ties, says sociologist Paul Spoonley, distinguished professor emeritus at Massey University in New Zealand.
“So the decision to migrate needs a very strong economic imperative to overcome that.”
The Thorn family, for their part, is reaping the rewards after Blair discovered his data engineer salary would jump by 50% in Australia, where Kiwis get automatic work and residency rights.
Eva, 16, and Chase, 10, are excelling at school and the family is savi